Has the nation lived down its history of racism and should the law become colorblind? Addressing two pivotal legal issues, one on affirmative action and a second on voting rights, a divided Supreme Court is poised to answer those questions. In one case, the issue is whether race preferences in university admissions undermine equal opportunity more than they promote the benefits of racial diversity. Just this past week, justices signaled their interest in scrutinizing affirmative action very intensely, expanding their review as well to a Michigan law passed by voters that bars ‘‘preferential treatment’’ to students based on race. Separately...

The White House launched its big push for investment in American infrastructure on Friday. But whoops! A mischievous gust of wind had its way with the all-American staging of President Obama’s big speech. White House staffers had attempted to cover the logos of Chinese crane company ZPMC with American flags, but Mother Nature had other ideas.

In my Weekly Standard cover story about the fallout from the “Climategate” email scandal three years ago, I offered the following question by way of prediction: Eventually the climate modeling community is going to have to reconsider the central question: Have the models the IPCC uses for its predictions of catastrophic warming overestimated the climate’s sensitivity to greenhouse gases? The article then went on to survey emerging research (U.S. government funded!) casting doubt on high estimates of climate sensitivity, along with alternative explanations on some climate factors, such as “black carbon.” The question in my mind at the time was...

CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS: You know, Peggy, what's been interesting about this week is all of the big polarizing issues of the last two generations culturally all popped up in one week, and one of it had to do with the Supreme Court with gay marriage, with abortion. This culture wars, normally when it comes back, it's something that's helpful to Republicans. Is it good this time for the conservative movement to have these issues out there? PEGGY NOONAN, WALL STREET JOURNAL: I don't know. Yeah, I think, all of these cultural issues, as I guess- we call them, have...

Is Michael Bloomberg helping or hurting his cause? When the New York mayorâ€™s organization, Mayorâ€™s Against Illegal Guns, launched its $12 million advertising campaign to pressure lawmakers into supporting gun control legislation, the negative reaction from the NRA was predictable, but a week after the launch, the reaction from potential allies has also been cool. Senators and staffers working on bipartisan legislation say that Bloombergâ€™s effort to mobilize voters is less effective because it is also energizing gun control opponents. Itâ€™s pressuring lawmakers in the wrong way, too. Any legislator targeted by Bloombergâ€™s campaign who ultimately supports gun control legislation...

Over at The Atlantic, Chris Frates covers Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “secret plan to repeal ObamaCare,” which turns out to be an old plan to repeal the law’s mandate through the reconciliation process after regaining the Senate majority in the 2012 election. The plan ran into a small problem with Republicans took it in the eye at the polls. They didn’t win the presidency, and they didn’t retake the Senate either. But the push to repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate is not dead yet. Republicans in Congress already see it as vulnerable simply because it’s the least popular part of...

Judging from the oral arguments in the two gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court this week, it appears the federal Defense of Marriage Act will be ruled unconstitutional on federalism grounds, and that the court will punt on California's same-sex marriage law, effectively allowing every state to define marriage as it wishes.That is not good enough for the progressive movement. Progressives want marriage to be redefined in every state to include same-sex relationships. And they will not stop there, either. As the court was listening to oral arguments Wednesday, progressive blogger and former Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee member Chris...

Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, an outspoken conservative who lost his seat more than a decade ago, thinks the time is right for a new run at political office. He announced a campaign for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Phil Gingrey, who’s running for Senate. Roll Call reports that Mr. Barr has already established a campaign team and has reached out to Capitol Hill politicians — including House leadership — for support.

This is a letter in regards to Mexico That was written by Alejandro Cao de Benos, Foreign Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. And That is a statement comes after North Korea Officially Declared "War" against South Korea and the United States. In the letter it says: "Dear friends, First I would like to send a greeting on Behalf of the Korean people, to Those who support our cause and just struggle to Maintain the Sovereignty and socialist construction in the Republic of Korea. The situation right now is critical. The United States has deployed its aircraft carriers,...

Leading gun-control advocate Mark Kelly warned Republican senators Sunday that trying to block a vote on new firearms legislation that includes universal background checks could hurt their re-election efforts. Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy captain, directed his remarks to Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, among five Republican senators who have suggested they will filibuster a debate and full floor vote. “They should listen to their constituents” and not get in the way of the debate, Kelly told “Fox News Sunday.”

(Reuters) - Egyptian prosecutors questioned Egypt's most prominent television satirist on Sunday over allegations he insulted the president and Islam, a case that has increased opposition fears of a crackdown on dissent. Bassem Youssef turned himself in after the prosecutor general issued an arrest warrant for him on Saturday. He was released on bail of 15,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,200), an official in the prosecutor's office said.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The parking lot in front of Freedom Deli at 2088 Lowes Drive in Clarksville was filled Friday, March 29 with over 200 supporters of the 2nd Amendment at a Rally for the rights of gun owners. Tennessee State Senator Mark Green spoke from the back of a truck and lent his support to the cause, beginning by reading from the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be...

With Democrats controlling the Legislature, California’s government has been managed since the late 1990s primarily for the financial benefit of government employees, at the expense of children’s education, vital infrastructure and public safety. This abuse of power has been destructive and fundamentally immoral. Nowhere are the consequences more acute than in our penal system. Last week, The Associated Press reported that prisoner advocates are suing local governments – including Riverside County – claiming that Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision last year to shift inmates to county jails already has caused overcrowding and health care atrocities similar to those that prompted a...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., insists his universal background check measure will reduce crime without infringing on "your ability to borrow your Uncle Willie's hunting rifle or share a gun with your friend at a shooting range." But the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates paint a dark picture of expanding background checks to private purchases, insisting the move inevitably would lead to a national firearms registry. With a registry in place, they say, the stage would be set for the NRA's worst nightmare - gun confiscations. The background check proposal, part of a post-Newtown Senate package facing...

From the cover of Time, April 4, 1983 Editorâ€™s Note: This week, we have run a series by Jay Nordlinger on missile defense. It has been 30 years since Reagan gave his speech announcing the project. What was his vision, and how has it fared? The last part of the series is below. Parts I through IV are at the following links: I, II, III, and IV.In that speech of his, 30 years ago, Reagan said, I know this is a formidable technical task, one that may not be accomplished before the end of this century. Yet current technology has...

Many cases challenging Barack Obama’s presidential eligibility have come and gone, but now an appeal has been filed with a state Supreme Court led by a newly elected chief justice who has expressed doubt about Obama’s qualification for office. Roy Moore was elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court last November, a decade after he defied a federal order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building. Now, 2012 Constitution Party presidential nominee Virgil Goode and Alabama Republican Party leader Hugh McInnish are asking the state’s highest court to force Secretary of State Beth Chapman...

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Democrats held a gun control rally in downtown St. Louis Saturday afternoon. Only about 150 people turned out for the event. Several gun rights supporters held their own counter protest. Dr. Robert Flood , director of pediatric emergency at SLU, gave the keynote speech at the end of the rally. The good doctor urged supporters to call congress and turn your rights and sovereignty over to United Nations by supporting the Child Rights Act. Dr. Flood said the Children’s Rights Amendment would counter balance the Second and 14th Amendments used by gun rights activists....

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Holding a Bible in her arms at the start of Holy Week, seamstress Maria Munoz waited patiently to visit the tomb of the man she considers another savior of humanity. The 64-year-old said she had already turned her humble one-bedroom house into a shrine devoted to the late President Hugo Chavez, complete with busts, photos and coffee mugs bearing his image. Now, she said, her brother-in-law was looking for a larger house to display six boxes' worth of Chavez relics that her family has collected throughout his political career. "He saved us from so many politicians...

The Obama administration has withdrawn a proposal to allow Medicare to pay for sex-change operations. The policy change was expected to draw criticism from Congress and perhaps taxpayers. However, the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday the proposal was withdrawn until the agency’s appeals board considers a challenge to the federal government’s existing policy that such operations are experimental and should not be covered by Medicare or Medicaid, according to The Hill. snip The decision was made during Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Week, in which Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will...

Watchdog.org reported: Thanks to your generous support, the New York City-based People’s Rights Fund has been able publicize the great work of Karl Marx and dictators Kim Jong-Il, Hugo Chavez and Saddam Hussein. Don’t remember writing that check? If you paid federal taxes after 1997, some of your money went to Tides, a San Francisco-based clearinghouse that collects and distributes about $251 million every year to hundreds of leftwing organizations. Much of the money flowing into Tides comes from wealthy benefactors who use Tides as a clearinghouse — a way to help finance left-liberal organizations without leaving any fingerprints. But...

March 29, 2020 The federal government today announced new regulations for buying fast food. Starting June 1, upon entering a national fast food chain restaurant or before ordering via a drive-thru each patron must undergo a Body Mass Index (BMI) analysis. The score will determine portion sizes for adults and children and restrict the options available. Scores are: underweight, normal, overweight, obese and morbidly obese. Automated tickets issued from the machines will be color coded to alert servers of a patron’s options. If a person is obese, for example, he or she will only be able to order sugar-free drinks...

Editorâ€™s Note: This week, we are running a series by Jay Nordlinger on missile defense. It has been 30 years since Reagan gave his speech announcing the project. What was his vision, and how has it fared? For the first three parts of the series, go here, here, and here.You will remember a curious incident in March 2012. Obama is talking with Dmitri Medvedev, Russiaâ€™s outgoing president. Their conversation is caught on tape. Obama says that a number of issues can be â€śsolved,â€ť and â€śparticularly missile defense.â€ť But â€śitâ€™s important for him to give me space.â€ťThe â€śhimâ€ť was Vladimir...

Budget Process Betrays Citizens Once Again! Republican Senate Leadership Collaborates with Gun Grabbing Democrats and Tyrannical Governor to Fund a $27 Million Statewide Police Database. This registration scheme was mandated by the unconstitutional NY SAFE Act and now it is funded by the 2013 budget bill. This will create a data base to register and track New York’s legal gun owners. Citizens in New York who chose to exercise their legitimate United States Constitutionally guaranteed right to Keep and Bear arms will now be treated no better than degenerate sex offenders! You will have to register your legally purchased firearms....

When Congress returns from its spring break the week after next, it will dive back into the debate over federal entitlement spending – most of which pays for benefits for retirees. House Republicans and Senate Democrats have already unveiled their largely incompatible budget outlines, so Washington will be watching President Barack Obama’s budget, due to be released April 10, for any proposals that could represent a middle ground. And this week, several news outlets are reporting that the president’s budget will offer spending restraints on Medicare and Social Security that go beyond what most congressional Democrats currently support.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea, reiterating that it considered the Korean Peninsula back in “a state of war,” threatened Saturday to shut down a factory complex it jointly operates with South Korea that stands as the last significant symbol of cooperation. The industrial park, the eight-year-old Kaesong complex in the North Korean border town of the same name, is a crucial source of badly needed cash for the heavily sanctioned North. It funnels more than $92 million a year in wages for 53,400 North Koreans employed there, and its operation has survived despite years of military tensions. The latest...

"This situation highlights the need to maintain our investments in our nation’s public health infrastructure. The outbreak was identified because of the strong leadership of state and federal public health officials and a robust PulseNet. Without adequate resources, we are asking those same officials to protect us with one hand tied behind their back. We should not let the deeply harmful, across-the-board cuts known as sequestration result in less funding for their work.”

Joseph Goebbels said that, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." ... Goebbels also warned, however, that the Big Lie could be maintained only for a certain amount of time unless the government used its authority to stifle dissent. This is the United States and not a totalitarian regime, so this is simply not going to happen. We will now expose MAIG's recent ad, in whose circulation Mayor Bloomberg's money had an apparent role, as a lie that is aggravated by the associated description: Mayors Against Illegal Guns released...

<p>Kenya's Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president, ending an election season that riveted the nation amid fears of a repeat of the 2007-08 post-election violence.</p>
<p>Saturday's verdict — following a drawn-out court case that raised tensions across the nation — means that Kenyatta will be sworn in as president early next month. He will become the second sitting president in Africa to face charges at the International Criminal Court. Kenyatta and Deputy President-elect William Ruto both face charges that they helped orchestrate the 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died. Both deny the charges. Ruto's trial is set to begin in late May; Kenyatta's is to start in July. Kenyatta has promised to report to The Hague.</p>

She’s baaaack. Sarah Palin attempted to relaunch her political career and her political action committee, SarahPAC, on Thursday with a Web video called “Loaded for Bear,” which presented the former Alaska governor as the new kingmaker for conservative populists in the GOP. The video riffed off her speech at CPAC, in which Palin railed against “the big consultants, the big money men, and the big bad media.” But there’s an irony alert ahead: the current stated purpose of SarahPAC is to raise money ahead of the 2014 election—most of which will be spent on conservative consultants. Don't believe me? Well,...

Actor Jim Carreyâ€™s â€śCold Dead Handâ€ť video unleashed a firestorm of outrage among conservatives and gun-rights advocatesâ€”and for good reason. In one pathetic song, Carrey, who enjoys the protection of an armed bodyguard, mocks the nearly 90 million gun owners in this country, Charlton Heston and rural America.Â Allahpundit over at Hot Air summed it up best when he said the song is â€śneither funny nor bitingâ€ť but rather, is â€śbasically an extended dick joke of the sort thatâ€™s been thrown at gun owners for decades.â€ť Indeed. But it seems Carrey couldnâ€™t handle Greg Gutfeldâ€™s criticism on Fox News. The actor...

This week, Vice-President Joe Biden, and House Minority Leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), showed us--once again--how thorough their contempt is for our Constitutionally guaranteed Second Amendment rights. According to a Washington Times article, on a Wednesday conference call organized by "Mayors Against Illegal Guns," Biden referred to current anti-gun legislation and told his anti-gun supporters, "Let me say this as clearly as I can: this is just the beginning." As the article notes, recent surveys show increasing opposition to stricter gun control measures. But this fact matters not to Biden; nor to Pelosi, who also voiced a determination to continue...

According to recent testimony by John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction (SIGAR), the United States has spent nearly 100 billion USD to rebuild Afghanistan in the last decade The decision by the United States Agency for International Development to scrap the completion of a dam project meant to supply electricity to Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban in Afghanistan, is the latest and perhaps largest failure of the United States to use development dollars to create stability by building Afghan infrastructure. USAID had planned to spend $266 million to repair the Kajaki Dam, located in Helmand province,...

Starting last month, Little Rock Gun Rights Examiner Jennifer Cruz wrote a "30 days of guns saving lives" series, as a response to media exploitation of criminal "gun violence" in furtherance of the agenda of more oppressive gun regulation, and also in response to the mass media's chronic under-reporting of defensive gun use. The series was successful enough that she has continued it even after the planned 30 days ran out--and there is certainly no danger of running out of such incidents. They are of course all compelling stories, as accounts about decent people protecting their and others' lives from...

When Congress reconvenes next month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to bring gun control back to the Senate floor. If this occurs, I will oppose any legislation that undermines Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms or their ability to exercise this right without being subject to government surveillance. Restricting Americans’ ability to purchase firearms readily and freely will do nothing to stop national tragedies such as those that happened in Newtown, Conn., and in Aurora, Colo. It will do much to give criminals and potential killers an unfair advantage by hampering law-abiding citizens’ ability to defend themselves and...

Liberals who demand church-state separation would pitch a fit if a public school decided to perform a play that reverently told stories of the Old Testament, whether it was the story of creation, the story of Noah, or Moses or Joseph and his brothers. But somehow, if a public school decides to put on a play mocking God and the Old Testament, that is not a church-state violation. The separation police don't want religious (or atheist) minorities to face religious indoctrination in a public school. But anti-religious indoctrination mocking the Judeo-Christian majority is a glorious festival of free speech.

On March 12th, a pro-life group at Johns Hopkins University, Voice for Life (VFL), was denied the right to become an official student club by the Student Government Association (SGA) during a student Senate meeting, after having been recommended for approval by the SGA Appointments and Evaluations Committee. At that same SGA meeting, though, another new group was approved called Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Although SJP has a history of anti-Semitism and disruption on other campuses, the SGA decided that the students from JHU creating the group were separate from other campus affiliations, and they couldn’t be punished...

Yesterday, Texas on the Potomac posted coverage of PolitiFact’s assessment of freshman Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The Pulitzer Prize-winning news source rated Cruz as being untruthful in his statements 50 percent of the time. Readers reached out, questioning the truthfulness of the fact-checkers themselves. Ted Cruz’s office contacted us with similar concerns. “PF is a liberal editorial outfit not a neutral fact checker. You must see that when you read items like yesterday’s Cruz/Obamacare item, which is ridiculous to the point of hilarity. Not a single substantial fact of Cruz’s is rebutted — in fact, his analysis was confirmed —...

Hollywood, the mainstream media and the public school system are all almost entirely controlled by people and groups friendly to the Democrat Party. Yet and still, even with that almost overwhelming advantage, Democrats can't do any better than a rough parity with the Republicans. If the tables were turned and the GOP controlled what you see on TV, in the news and what your kids are taught at school the same way the Democrats do, the Republican Party would win every presidential election and would permanently maintain unassailable majorities in Congress. So, why aren't the Democrats running away with every...

Emily Litella was the Saturday Night Live character who would spin out lengthy theories based on her misunderstanding of a word or phrase and, when her error was pointed out, would respond crisply, “Never mind.” The Economist, which I read and revere and for which I have on occasion written (they assign reviews of books by Economist writers to outsiders), has long been convinced that we on earth face a crisis caused by man-made global warming. Now the newspaper (as it refers to itself) seems to have reached an Emily Litella moment.“Global warming slows down,” reads a line on the...

A state bill proposes a ban on smoking tobacco inside condos, duplexes and apartment units occupied by either renters or owners. If passed, California would be the first state that would regulate smoking inside people’s homes. Poll here

<p>Legislation that would award the injured from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting the Purple Heart would adversely affect the trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan by labeling the attack terrorism, according to a Defense Department document obtained by Fox News.</p>
<p>The document comes following calls from survivors and their families for the military honor, because they say Fort Hood was turned into a battlefield when Hasan opened fire during the November 2009 attack. Fox News is told that the DOD “position paper” is being circulated specifically in response to the proposed legislation.</p>

Started by Mayor Bloomberg in 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a coalition of over 800 mostly Democrat Mayors in all states except Alaska, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Since pretty much everyone is against illegal guns, the group would more accurately be called, Mayors For Gun Control. Bloomberg may want to consider background checks on these pro gun-control Mayors before they are accepted into the group, because the reckless and criminal behavior of some of the members is not helping their cause, from a PR standpoint. The Washington Free Beacon recently reported that some current and former members...

Even as Democratic lawmakers rush to announce their support for gay marriage, a look back at the congressional debate over the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 shows they haven't always championed the rights of same sex couples. ((snip)) "I am not for same-sex marriage. I have said that publicly. I would not vote for same-sex marriage," Kerry, now U.S. secretary of state, said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California made a similar point. "I personally believe that the legal institution of marriage is the union between a man and a woman," she said. "But, as a matter of public policy,...

An Arizona judge has refused to grant a divorce to a transgender man who gave birth to three children. The judge said there was insufficient evidence that Thomas Beatie was male when he married; the state bans same-sex marriage. In 2008, Mr Beatie, who had lived as a man for decades, gave birth to a girl, the first of three pregnancies. He is legally male but kept his female reproductive organs and bore children because his wife was infertile. A spokesman for Mr Beatie, Ryan Gordon, said Maricopa County Family Court Judge Douglas Gerlach's comments came as a shock. He...

The Health and Human Services Department is considering whether Medicare and Medicaid should cover sex-change operations. HHS's Departmental Appeals Board is weighing a challenge to the department's ruling that sex-change procedures are experimental and should not be covered by Medicare and Medicaid. The department had said early Friday that it would accept public comments on whether to reopen the decision not to cover sex changes. But a spokesperson said Friday evening that the agency has shut down that comment period in light of the administrative challenge.

New York's Assembly passed the state's $135 billion budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 on Thursday just before midnight, the third budget in a row to be delivered on time in a state known for regularly being late. Lawmakers rushed to sign off on the legislation during a week that was punctuated with religious holidays and have succeeded in getting the job done ahead of the start of the state's fiscal year on April 1. Getting the budget ready on time may not sound like much to be proud of, but it is being touted as a triumph in a state...

President Obama is the most radical man ever to occupy the Oval Office. The national debt, which he is intent on increasing, has passed $16 trillion. He believes that more government borrowing and spending are the solution to every problem. He seems unaware that the free-enterprise system has lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system devised by man. The president has launched a war on Americans' Second Amendment rights. He has launched a war on religious freedom. He has launched a war on fossil fuels. He is working to nationalize one-sixth of the economy with job-killing...

For a Republican Party embarked on a mission of modernization, an ethnic slur uttered by a senior House Republican this week offered an unwelcome reminder of the past. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) used a derogatory term for Latinos in a radio interview Thursday, less than two weeks after the Republican National Committee issued a post-election report that called for broadening the party’s tent. The comment, coupled with an anti-gay remark that an RNC official posted on his Facebook page this week, highlighted the challenge Republicans face in their nascent effort to woo a more diverse cross section of America as...